Thirty-eight Indians and mixed bloods were hanged simultaneously at 10 am today at Mankato, judged of guilty of crimes committed during the Sioux outbreak in August and September.
Remaining imprisoned are 268 others, sentenced to death earlier by a military commission but reprieved by President Abraham Lincoln. They watched the execution through chinks between the logs of their prison building.
The condemned prisoners marched in a single file from the prison covered with muslin caps, their hands lashed tightly before them.
Led by the provost marshal, they stumbled up the steps. Solders led the doomed men beneath the dangling nooses, and then slipped the ropes over the covered heads. The scaffold is square, built to accommodate 40 at a time around it circumference. But President Lincoln ordered the deaths of only 39, and just before Christmas another, Tatemina, was respited. The two empty nooses twitched in the chill air.
Around the scaffold and at a distance, lines of soldiers stood at had come to witness the hangings. Some were there who had lost families to the men whose faces were covered, lost relatives, friends, home and money. Others had been no nearer the outbreak than 50 miles. Other came for the occasion from points east.
Largely the spectators were serious, though there had been jokes and laughter in the cold air earlier, before the prisoners had come forth. Colonel Stephen Miller, prison commandant, closed all liquor establishments for the day.
The crowd was sober.
Almost on cue the doomed men broke into the “hi-yi-yi” of the Dakota death chant. They swayed back and forth, moving the scaffold with them. The provost marshal shouted them down.
Then they broke into discordant yelling. Interpreters said some were protesting the wearing of caps over their faces. Some were shouting their names and the names of the others of the condemned and repeating “I am here!” By swinging their bound arms side to side, a few managed to grasp the hands of those next to them. The provost marshal and soldiers hurried from the scaffold.
10a.m.
The crowd and Indians alike fell silent as a drummer boomed out three slow rolling beats. The crowd seemed to sense the tenseness the Indians must have felt inside their masks. The Indians started shouting again.
The third rolling drum beat ended.
Provost Marshal Joseph R. Brown dropped his hands, the signal. William J. Dudley of Lake Shetek, two of whose children died in the outbreak and whose wife is still missing, nervously tried to cut the trap door rope with a long knife.
He missed clumsily he tried again. The rope parted and all 40 trap doors sprang. Ropes jerked with the sudden weight, grasping hands were rudely parted, shouts were choked off. A cheers from the crowd straggled into the breath fogged air.
A rope broke and a body dropped in a heap on the frozen ground. The neck was broken but the body was hanged again.
10:10 a.m.
The last Indian was declared dead. He was cut down and laid beside the others.
Carts carried the bodies to the bank of the Blue Earth River where two large graves had been scratched among the willows. Covered with blankets, the bodies were deposited.
Final prayers were, said by the missionaries – Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic – who had baptized all but two a few days earlier.
Dirt and sand was hastily thrown over the forms. The burial party scurried away, leaving only a couple of curious onlookers.
The willows bobbed in the wind, the same wind that was blowing over shallow graves dotting the blackened prairies and hidden in now quiet valleys of the upper Minnesota, graves of victims of the outbreak five months ago.
Source: The Redwood Gazette December 26, 1862
Chronology of the Dakota Conflict (Sioux Uprising) Trials
July 23, 1851- In the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, Two bands of Dakota cede to the U.S. lands in southwestern portions of the Minnesota Territory (as well as portions of Iowa and South Dakota) for $1.665 million in cash and annuities.
August 5, 1851 In the Treaty of Mendota, Two other band of Dakota cede to the U.S. lands in southeastern portions of the Minnesota Territory for $1.41 million in cash and annuitities.
Summer, 1851- 7,000 Dakota are moved to two reservations bordering the Minnesota River in southwestern Minnesota.
Spring, 1857- A renegade band of Dakota kill forty Americans in northwest Iowa in what is called “the Spirit Lake Massacre.”
1858- The Dakota cede additional land on the north bank of the Minnesota River, reducing the size of their reservation.
August, 1862- Annuity payments are late and rumors circulate that payments, if they will be made at all, will not be in the customary gold because of the ongoing Civil War. Dakota plan to demand that future annuity payments be made directly to them, rather than through traders. Traders, learning of plan, refuse to sell provisions on credit, despite widespread hunger and starvation on the reservation. At a meeting called by Indian Agent Thomas Galbraith to resolve the impasse, Andrew Myrick, spokesman for the traders, says: “So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat grass.”
August 17,- 1862 Four Dakota kill five settlers near Litchfield. Councils are held among the Dakota on whether to wage war. Despite deep divisions on the issue, war is the chosen course.
August 18,- 1862 Groups of Dakota kill 44 Americans in attacks on the Redwood Agency and on federal troops advancing to the Agency in the hope of suppressing the uprising. Ten Americans are captured.
August 19,- 1862 Minnesota Governor Ramsey appoints Col. Henry Sibley to command American volunteer forces. Sixteen settlers are killed in Dakota attacks in and around New Ulm. Settlers crowd into a small barricaded area of New Ulm’s main street.
August 20-21, 1862- Dakota attack Fort Ridgely, but the Fort is successfully defended.
August 23, 1862- About 650 Dakota attack New Ulm a second time. Most buildings in the town are burned. Although 34 die and 60 are wounded, the town is successfully defended.
August 25, 1862- About 2,000 New Ulm refugees (mostly women, children, and wounded men) load into 153 wagons or set off on foot for Mankato, thirty miles away.
September 2, 1862- In the Battle of Birch Coulee (near Morton), American troops suffer their greatest casualties of the war.
September 6, 1862- Major General John Pope, having recently lost the Battle of Bull Run, is appointed commander of U.S. troops in the Northwest, charged with suppressing the Dakota uprising.
September 23, 1862- The battle of Wood Lake is a decisive victory for American troops. While the Wood Lake fighting is in progress, Dakota opposed to continuation of the war take control of 269 American captives held near the Chippewa River.
September 26, 1862- “Friendlies” release American captives. Col. Sibley enters Dakota camp and takes 1200 Dakota men, women, and children into custody. Over the next weeks, and additional 800 Dakota will surrender to American forces. In 37 days of fighting, the Dakota Conflict has claimed the lives of over 500 Americans and about 60 Dakota.
September 28, 1862- Sibley appoints a five-member military commission to “try summarily” Dakota for “murder and other outrages” committed against Americans. Sixteen trials take place the same day. Ten Dakota are convicted and sentenced to be hanged, six are acquitted. Over the next six weeks, 393 Dakota are tried.
October 14, 1862- At President Lincoln’s cabinet meeting, the ongoing Dakota trials are discussed. Lincoln and several cabinet members are disturbed by General Pope’s report on the trials and planned executions, and move to prevent precipitous action.
October 17, 1862- General Pope tells Sibley that “the President directs that no executions be made without his sanction.”
November 3, 1862- The last of 393 trials is conducted, with 42 trials taking place on the last day. In all, 323 Dakota are convicted and 303 are sentenced to be hanged. All but 8 of those acquitted remained imprisoned at Camp Release.
November 9, 1862- The 303 condemned Dakota are moved from the Lower Agency to Camp Lincoln, near Mankato. While passing through New Ulm, the captives are attacked by an angry mob. A few Dakota are killed and many injured. (Meanwhile, the 1700 uncondemned are moved to Fort Snelling, near St. Paul.)
November 10, 1862- Pope forwards to the President names of those condemned. Lincoln asks for “a full and complete record of their convictions” and “a careful statement” indicating “the more guilty and influential of the culprits.”
November 15, 1862- Pope forwards records of the trials to President Lincoln, together with a letter urging Lincoln to authorize execution of all of the condemned and warning of mob violence if the executions did not go forward.
Late November, 1862- Rev. Riggs and Bishop Whipple urge clemency for Dakota involved in battles and executions only for those proven to have committed rape or killed women or children.
December 4, 1862- Several hundred civilians, armed with hatchets, clubs, and knives, attack the camp where the condemned Dakota are being held, but are surrounded and disarmed by soldiers.
December 6, 1862- President Lincoln issues an order allowing only 39 of the planned 300 executions to go forward. The execution of one additional condemned man is suspended later after new evidence casts doubt upon his guilt.
December 24, 1862- The 38 condemned Dakota are allowed to meet with their families for the last time.
December 26, 1862- At 10 a.m., the condemned, singing and chanting Dakota songs, are led to the scaffolds in Mankato. Three drumbeats signal the moment of execution, the crowd cheers. Bodies are buried in a single grave on the edge of town.
April, 1863- Congress enacts a law providing for the removal of Dakota bands from Minnesota. Most of the Dakota community will be moved to South Dakota. The convicted prisoners who were not executed are moved to Camp McClellan near Davenport, Iowa.
March 22, 1866- President Andrew Johnson orders release of the 177 surviving prisoners.
1863 to 1890- Sioux Wars continue, finally ending in the Battle at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1890.
Source: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/dakota/dak_chrono.html
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